This invention pertains to a system of shoring posts and supporting stands useful for storing boats out of water and particularly to a boat shoring system comprising individually adjustable and collapsible shoring posts and supporting stands securely interconnected with stabilizing cables to provide a boat cradle or support system readily adjustable to support variable size boat hulls removed from water.
Supporting systems or boat cradles for supporting boats in dry storage are known. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,285 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,468,150 disclose boat blocks and boat cradles comprising fixed dimension wooden base members resting on the ground with adjustable vertical supports secured at the distal ends of fixed lateral members for supporting the hull section of a boat while U.S. Pat. No. 3,430,911 discloses laterally adjustable posts resting on a fixed lateral cross-beam. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,277 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,667 disclose adjustable support members for supporting a boat hull with a center keel. In said U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,167, sailboats are supported by vertical posts interconnected to a series of horizontal stabilizing pipes.
The prior art devices, however, are deficient in that the boat shoring structures are unstable, particularly with high center of gravity larger boats, and are not easily adjustable to accomodate various size boat hulls. Stabilizing heavy and bulky boat hulls against inadvertent shift requires equalizing and balancing supporting forces particularly important in maintaining safe storage of boats. Further, prior art showing structures are not easily dismantled for storage during non-use.
It now has been found that a plurality of individually adjustable shoring posts or stands can be independently adjusted both vertically and transversely to safely support a wide variety of boat hulls of different widths, lengths and heights. The individual shoring stands are securely stabilized with angularly directed lateral stabilizing cables or chains in conjunction with similar horizontally disposed stem to stern center cables or chains. The boat shoring system of this invention comprises two or more sub-systems where each sub-system includes a vertically adjustable central load bearing post adapted to support the keel of the vessel in combination with outer adjustable spaced shoring stands particularly directed inwardly on a vertical bias toward the central load bearing post to engage and support the boat. The interconnecting cables or chains prevent ground slippage of individual outer shoring stands in the system while the entire weight of the boat is supported evenly by the entire shoring system. The individually stabilized outer biased shoring stands provide inwardly directed biased supporting forces while being securely chained to prevent lateral ground movement thereof. The entire shoring system can be easily assembled and adjusted vertically and transversely for use or easily dismantled for compact storage of the individual parts thereof. These and other advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent by referring to the accompanying drawings as described in the appended specification.